On The Road: IO Play, Playfully Hands Free
We’re nearing the end of our tour de force of ultimate road tripping accessories, but never fear, we still have a couple goodies up our sleeve for you. Hopefully you’ve been inspired in some way, whether it’s to get out and ride a bike, or to have another drink because hey, you’re on vacation, with the security of knowing if you’re okay to drive. We hope you’ve got plans to enjoy your spring break to the fullest. Earlier we looked at a signal booster, which requires you to utilize a hands-free method of using your phone. Never ones to leave you hanging for too long, today we’ve got the ultimate hands-free solution for you!
Soundgate’s IO Play is an elegant solution for utilizing your iPhone (or Zune, Blackberry or any other bluetooth media player) to its max. In a nutshell this is an after-market audio controller that allows your PDA to connect to your stereo system via bluetooth. This allows you to make hands-free calls, and stream music through your car speakers. When you order one you’ll be asked the make of your car and the harness that gets shipped to you will be specific to your car, making installation is as simple as possible. Now, anytime it’s necessary to remove a car stereo to install something, there’s a certain amount of skill and knowledge required, and if you have a good handle on those you’ll probably do fine installing this yourself. There’s no shame in going to a professional in order to have everything hooked up properly.
The IO Play will auto-connect and store up to five different devices for you. We tested ours out with two different iPhones and a Blackberry, and didn’t have any trouble connecting with any of the different devices. Both of the iPhones used are equipped with OS 3.1, so we were able to stream music over bluetooth, if you’re using an older OS you’ll need to use the available dongle. The beautiful part of the IO Play isn’t just that you can stream music from your phone to your car, but that you can seamlessly switch from your car stereo to your MP3s, to a phone call with the press of a button. You can even keep your GPS hooked up, and it will not interfere with the functionality of the IO Play. However you will lose voice commands from your GPS while you’re on a call.
The unit head is not intrusive, and has only four buttons to deal with. The controls are smooth, and for the most part function quite well. There were a few times when we were trying to switch from a call to the MP3 that we had a little trouble getting the skip forward function to work right. For the most part it seemed to be fairly isolated, and could have been due to the fact that one of our writers abuses her phone, but we’re not pointing fingers or looking to lay blame here. The sound quality was perfectly acceptable, though those people who have premium audio systems need to be aware that the IO Play does have it’s own amp, which is comparable to a factory stereo, and that’s the performance you’ll get while you’re using the IO to stream music or to make calls. Your own system amp will still be the primary amp for functions like using the radio, CD player, or hardwired MP3 player.
The IO Play has an MSRP of $279.95, but is available directly from Sound Gate or online from retailers like Amazon for under $200.
